Subject(s)
Hippocampus/physiology , Memory , Taste/physiology , Animals , Behavior, Animal , Brain Mapping , Hippocampus/metabolism , Models, Biological , N-Methylaspartate/metabolism , Rats , Rats, Wistar , Salts , Time FactorsABSTRACT
We have determined that the temporal context of drinking can modulate latent inhibition of learned saline aversions in Wistar rats by changing the time of day of drinking of the preexposure and conditioning phases. Latent inhibition was absent in the group preexposed and conditioned to saline at different times of the day, but not in the group that was preexposed and conditioned at the same time of day. The results confirm a previous report that the time of day can modulate taste aversion learning independently of other environmental cues. It is proposed that the features and duration of the habituation training to the temporal contexts used may be critical for time-dependent latent inhibition to appear.
Subject(s)
Attention/physiology , Avoidance Learning/physiology , Circadian Rhythm/physiology , Habituation, Psychophysiologic/physiology , Taste , Animals , Cues , Drinking Behavior/physiology , Field Dependence-Independence , Male , Rats , Rats, WistarABSTRACT
In a pair of experiments, we have compared the ability of changes of place (Exp. 1) and changes of time of day (Exp. 2) to separately modulate learned saline-aversion memory phenomena in rats. Neither a spatial nor a temporal change disrupted latent inhibition using the present behavioral procedure. However, pre-exposure to the taste increased the contextual control of the learned aversion expression. The aversion reappeared in the place or at the time of conditioning after extinction in a different context. The results indicate that environmental and temporal contexts can independently, but similarly modulate taste aversion learning.
